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Dec 29, 2019

Calculating the time it will take spacecraft to find their way to other star systems

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space travel

A pair of researchers, one with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the other with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CIT, has found a way to estimate how long it will take already launched space vehicles to arrive at other star systems. The pair, Coryn Bailer-Jones and Davide Farnocchia have written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.

Back in the 1970s, NASA sent four unmanned probes out into the solar system—Pioneer 10 and 11, and Voyager 1 and 2—which, after completion of their missions, kept going—all four are on their way out of the or have already departed. But what will become of them? Will they make their way to other star systems, and if so, how long might it take them? This is what Bailer-Jones and Davide Farnocchia wondered. To find some possible answers, they used the Gaia space telescope. It was launched by the European Space Agency back in 2013 and has been stationed at a point just outside of Earth’s orbit around the sun. It has been collecting information on a billion stars, including their paths through space. The latest dataset was released just last year on 7.2 million stars.

With data describing the paths of the four and data describing the paths of a host of stars in hand, the researchers were able to work out when the paths of the four spacecraft might approach very far away .

Dec 29, 2019

Doctors Fighting Brain Cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Glioblastoma is one of the most common and aggressive forms of brain cancer, and it is particularly difficult to treat. Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have come up with a new approach to treatment for the disease, by growing organoids based on a patient’s own tumor to find the most effective treatments. Digital Trends spoke to senior author Dr. Donald O’Rourke to learn more.

The technique uses mini-brains — pea-sized organoids grown from stem cells which recreate features of full-scale brains. The mini-brains are similar enough to real brains that they can be used for testing out medical treatments to see how a full-sized brain would respond.

The breakthrough in this research is regarding treatment individualization. One of the challenges of treating a complex disease like brain cancer is that different people respond in different ways to the various treatment options available. After surgery has been performed to remove a tumor, doctors typically begin further treatment using radiation or chemotherapy around one month later. That means there isn’t always time to use perform genetic analysis to see which treatment might be best suited for a particular patient — the doctors need to know what will work and start further treatment as soon as possible.

Dec 29, 2019

Perpetual Life Photo

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

The Race To Find A Cure For Aging Learn about three pioneers working to turn back the clock ~ via Medium #perpetuallife

https://medium.com/discourse/the-race-to-find-a-cure-for-aging-98676b0318dc
We want to look & feel young again, and every year we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on beauty serums, cosmetic surgery, and exotic supplements in the hopes of appearing more vibrant, healthy, and desirable.

Dec 29, 2019

Ask Ethan: Did God Create The Universe?

Posted by in category: space

Science cannot prove the existence of God, but it cannot disprove God either; it can only disprove the notion of a specific, poorly conceived God. If you claim that your God lives in the clouds, you can disprove that God by simply observing the clouds. If you claim that God lives in our Universe, you can disprove that God by observing the entire Universe. But if your God exists in an extra dimension, before cosmic inflation, or outside of space and time altogether, neither proof nor disproof is possible.

In a fundamental way, it is purely a matter of what your faith is. All we can control, at the end of the day, is how we treat one another. Do we welcome those who believe different things than we do into our hearts, communities, and lives? Or do we shun, exclude, and “other” them?

Regardless of what you believe, I have the same advice for you: choose kindness. It costs nothing, while benefitting the giver, the recipient, and those who simply witness it. Whether you say that God made us or not, I would say the same thing: the wonders and joys of science and the Universe are for you, exactly as you are, too.

Dec 29, 2019

Gene Therapy Arrives

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

After false starts, drugs that manipulate the code of life are finally changing lives.

Dec 29, 2019

Molecules Found in Ginger Remodel the Microbiome

Posted by in category: particle physics

So maybe ginger is actually good for you:


Small RNA-containing particles in ginger root are found to promote the growth of beneficial bacteria and alleviate colitis in mouse guts.

Dec 29, 2019

How hacking the human heart could replace pill popping

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A new generation of “smart” implantable devices could replace traditional medication to treat a range of chronic conditions, including cardiac disease.

Dec 29, 2019

First human trials of CRISPR outside China have been declared successful

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The results from the treatment have been nothing less than miraculous. The beta-thalassemia patient, a European native who needed 16 blood transfusions a year but hasn’t needed even one since the treatment and the sickle-cell patient doesn’t suffer from the pain attacks associated with the condition anymore.

Dec 29, 2019

Germany just guaranteed unemployed citizens around $330 per month indefinitely. The policy looks a lot like basic income

Posted by in categories: economics, policy

Germany’s supreme court recently ruled that an old policy that suspended payments if individuals didn’t actively search for work was unconstitutional.

Dec 29, 2019

Inside The Cryptocurrency Revolution | VICE on HBO

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, business, cryptocurrencies, internet

Bitcoin’s emergence as a global digital currency has been as revolutionary as it has been erratic. But while fledgling investors obsess over every fluctuation in the cryptocurrency market, nation-states are more interested in the underlying blockchain technology and its ability to revolutionize how business is done on the internet and beyond. VICE’s Michael Moynihan travels to Russia with Vitalik Buterin, inventor of the ethereum blockchain, to get a front-row seat to the geopolitical tug of war over Internet 3.0.

Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com

Continue reading “Inside The Cryptocurrency Revolution | VICE on HBO” »